ELKO — Claims of unfit drinking water by residents of Owyhee are spurring a request to the school district to supply clean water.
Jennifer Eisele and Tyson N. Manning, cite a report by the Environmental Defense Institute titled “Little Reason for Confidence in the Drinking Water on the Duck Valley Reservation” that explains samples of drinking water in 2015 and 2016 “show significantly elevated levels of lead, arsenic, barium, copper and fluoride.” The February report recommends Duck Valley residents not to drink the water until “the levels are not only below federal maximum contaminant levels but are also not exceeding reasonable public health guidelines.” The Environmental Defense Institute is an Idaho-based organization that focuses on nuclear issues.
In a letter to the Elko County School District, Eisele and Manning point to the report and ask that “the school district immediately supply clean drinking water to Owyhee Combined Schools for their consumption as the local drinking water is unfit.” “It is your duty to protect our children while they are in your care,” wrote Eisele and Manning, who also said that in September they tried to raise awareness of the water supply’s contamination by nuclear waste development that posed “a large number of possible health consequences.” “We encouraged the population to stop drinking the water immediately and to relocate, if at all possible,” Eisele and Manning wrote.
Superintendent Jeff Zander said the school district is investigating the report and requested a testing of the water for nuclear contamination.
“The health and safety of our students across the district are our No.
1 priority,” Zander said.
“We have reached out to a local contractor to test the water at the school.” “Hopefully, we’ll have the water samples back Friday,” Zander said, adding that he plans to talk to Shoshone-Paiute tribe officials and make a decision on what to do.
When asked about his expectations for the school district to respond, Manning said he understood the district’s budget would be allotted for other things, and said the request wasn’t a demand for immediate action.
Manning said aletter to the district and a Facebook post on Sept. 30 titled “Remember My People,” was to raise awareness that the drinking water in Owyhee “cannot be trusted and is not safe.” “We’ve been encouraging the tribe not to drink the water, but they have low economic means and we can’t ask them to buy water forever,” Manning said.
“If we can’t supply to every tribal home, there has to be a way to safeguard our children.”